Ṣulḥ-i Kul under Akbar: Reconstructing the Short Life of a Concept of Human Amity

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-214
Author(s):  
Irfan Habib

Akbar’s policy of religious toleration from early in his reign (1556–1605) long remained in need of a theoretical justification, especially one from within the framework of Islamic tradition. At long last, the concept of Ṣulḥ-i Kul, derived from s[ūfic thought, was found to answer the need. Here we bring together evidence from contemporary texts to establish more precisely when the secular conversion of this mystic notion took place and how it came to be used as a justification for human amity and religious tolerance by Akbar’s administration. Its short reign, however, ended within a few years of Akbar’s death.

2019 ◽  
pp. 216-225
Author(s):  
Сергий Спицын

Статья посвящена обсуждению положения Русской Православной Церкви в 1905 году в связи с вопросом введения веротерпимости. Поводом стал манифест «Об укреплении начал веротерпимости». Закон предоставил свободу всем вероисповеданиям, но никак не коснулся положения Православия. Всё это вызвало массовые дискуссии в церковном обществе, в которых особое место занимала проблема веротерпимости. Отражением обсуждений этого вопроса стали «Отзывы епархиальных архиереев по церковной реформе». В них высшее духовенство давало оценку положению Православной Церкви в условиях нового манифеста. Одни считали закон положительным явлением для церковной жизни, другие, опровергая это мнение, критиковали закон. Несмотря на разногласие во мнениях, все архиереи были сторонниками преобразований с целью активизации деятельности Православной Церкви. The article is devoted to a discussion of the situation of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1905 in connection with the question of the introduction of religious tolerance. The occasion was the manifesto "On Strengthening the Principles of Religious Tolerance". The law gave freedom to all faiths, but did not affect the position of Orthodoxy. All this gave rise to mass discussions in church society in which the problem of religious toleration had a special place. A reflection of the debates on this question was the Review of the Diocesan Hierarchs on Church Reform. In these, the higher clergy gave their assessment of the position of the Orthodox Church in the face of the new manifesto. Some regarded the law as a positive phenomenon for Church life, while others, refuting this view, voiced their criticism of the law. Despite the differences of opinion, all the bishops were in favour of change, in order to revitalise the activities of the Orthodox Church.


Philosophy ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Habermas

Religious toleration first became legally enshrined in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Religious toleration led to the practice of more general inter-subjective recognition of members of democratic states which took precedence over differences of conviction and practice. After considering the extent to which a democracy may defend itself against the enemies of democracy and to which it should be prepared to tolerate civil disobedience, the article analyses the contemporary dialectic between the notion of civil inclusion and multiculturalism. Religious toleration is seen as the pacemaker for modern multiculturalism, in which the claims of minorities to civic inclusion are recognized so long as members of all groups understand themselves to be citizens of one and the same political community.


1999 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Johns

Job (Ayyūb) is a byword for patience in the Islamic tradition, notwithstanding only six Qur'anic verses are devoted to him, four in Ṣād (vv.41-4), and two in al-Anbiyā' (vv.83-4), and he is mentioned on only two other occasions, in al-Ancām (v.84) and al-Nisā' (v.163). In relation to the space devoted to him, he could be accounted a ‘lesser’ prophet, nevertheless his significance in the Qur'an is unambiguous. The impact he makes is achieved in a number of ways. One is through the elaborate intertext transmitted from the Companions and Followers, and recorded in the exegetic tradition. Another is the way in which his role and charisma are highlighted by the prophets in whose company he is presented, and the shifting emphases of each of the sūras in which he appears. Yet another is the wider context created by these sūras in which key words and phrases actualize a complex network of echoes and resonances that elicit internal and transsūra associations focusing attention on him from various perspectives. The effectiveness of this presentation of him derives from the linguistic genius of the Qur'an which by this means triggers a vivid encounter with aspects of the rhythm of divine revelation no less direct than that of visual iconography in the Western Tradition.


2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Shah

The concluding part of the article pursues the theoretical arguments which relate to the tawqīf-işṭilāḥ debate on the origin of language and the intricate link with the concept of majāz. The article attempts to show how the question of the origin of language was imported into the controversy relating to the resort to metaphor and figurative language in the exegesis of the Qur'an and Prophetic dicta. Moreover, there was concern in some quarters that religious doctrines were being articulated through a veneer of metaphorical language. Some theologians had, in presenting a hypothesis for the existence of tropical expressions in the idiom of Arabic, referred to the concept of işṭilāḥ to justify their arguments, whilst tawqīf al-lugha was adduced to counter such reasoning. The religious significance of the issue is highlighted by Ibn Taymiyya who advances the thesis that the evolved concept of majāz was expressly formulated at a posterior juncture in the development of the Islamic tradition. He vociferously argues that a developed concept of majāz was insidiously exploited by those with preconceived theological motives. The article shows why Ibn Taymiyya had to discard the perceived sacrosanct doctrine of tawqīfal-lugha in order to refute theoretically the concept of majāz. This also meant that for scholars of the same view as Ibn Taymiyya, the aesthetic features associated with the device of majāz were summarily disregarded. Nevertheless, a concept of majāz was explicitly endorsed as an indisputable feature of the Arabic language by a majority of scholars.


Moreana ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (Number 187- (1-2) ◽  
pp. 207-226
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Phélippeau

This study examines the notions of pleasure, individual liberty and consensus in Thomas More’s Utopia. The paradox inherent in Utopia, written before the Reformation, is especially visible in the affirmation of religious toleration coexisting with the need for a strict supervision of the citizens. The dream of an ideal republic is based on a Pauline vision of man which defines the individual mainly as a sinner. Consequently, it is the duty of the republic’s rulers to guide the citizens and establish a consensus. This study tries to determine the part left to the individual’s free will and examines the nature and function of the structures that are supposed to ensure the happiness of each one and of the whole community. The notion of moral hierarchy is asserted as the linchpin of the Utopian social construction.


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